What Was The Hottest Take This Year?
Rating the spiciness and truthiness of the hottest takes we heard in 2025.
Today's Liberal News
Money Talks: Saving Lives Without USAID
Mary Childs learned about how places like ALIMA and Givewell are moving forward now that USAID is done.
Nuclear Fusion Powered by Memestock
Trump Media & Technology Group has merged with a nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies.
States step into the breach as Obamacare subsidies lapse
Even state governments that want to help can’t completely cover rising insurance premiums.
Trump admin doles out billions for rural health
Montana and California will receive near equal amounts in 2026, despite their massive size disparity.
The miracle cure for sickle cell is now 2 years old. Most are still waiting.
Despite a Trump administration push, there are few facilities offering the complex treatment in the rural areas where many patients live.
The ultraprocessed food makers have an answer for RFK Jr.
The companies behind Doritos, Oscar Mayer wieners, and Kraft Mac & Cheese are warning state regulation promoted by the health secretary is driving up your food bill.
Why RFK Jr.’s plan to follow Europe on vaccines is getting panned
In some cases, Europe has better contained disease, in others it’s let them spread to keep costs down.
When Church Was a Queer Space
Outward’s hosts sit down with the host and co-creator of When We All Get to Heaven.
Remembering, with the People of MCC San Francisco, AIDS Still Isn’t Over.
The neighborhood changes, the church moves, people forget and remember “the AIDS years,” but AIDS isn’t over.
What Happens When You Organize Church Around AIDS – and AIDS Changes?
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
The Church’s Pastor Gets Diagnosed with AIDS. And the Church Wonders How Much They Might Lose.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
A Church Romance Between a Hula Dancer and a Lumbersexual Blossoms in a Dangerous Time.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
Vance tries to thread affordability needle in Rust Belt
The vice president fine-tunes Trump’s economic message, but he’s only got so much wiggle room.
Ex-Trump voters swung hard to Democrats over costs in NJ & VA, new research shows
Voters who backed Donald Trump in 2024 and swung to Democrats in this year’s Virginia and New Jersey elections did so over economic concerns, according to focus groups conducted by a Democratic pollster and obtained by POLITICO.
Democrats think they’ve found their 2026 message — and Miami just backed it up
In races across the country, Democrats focused on promises to make life more affordable — even as they offered contrasting approaches.
Voters sour on Trump’s handling of the economy in new poll
The White House plans to make affordability a key selling point for Republicans across the board as the 2026 midterm elections come into focus.
Trump will again test ‘blame Democrats’ message on the economy — this time at a casino
President Donald Trump will give a speech in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the first stop in a ‘tour’ where he will talk about affordability concerns, among others.
“I Will Govern as a Democratic Socialist”: Watch Zohran Mamdani & Bernie Sanders at NYC Inauguration
Zohran Mamdani hailed “a new era” for New York on Thursday, promising in his inaugural address to deliver on the ambitious agenda that electrified progressives in the city and saw him defeat the political establishment in both the Democratic primary and the general election last year. Addressing thousands of supporters who braved freezing temperatures to attend the ceremony at City Hall, Mamdani vowed to “govern expansively and audaciously” for residents.
AOC, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams & Poet Cornelius Eady: Voices from the Mamdani Inauguration
“We have chosen courage over fear. We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few,” said Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her introduction to the historic inauguration of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor.
Zohran Mamdani Supporters Celebrate “Politics of Optimism” at His Inauguration
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures and police barricades to be part of Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration as mayor on New Year’s Day. Democracy Now! spoke with many Mamdani supporters, including a high school student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, about what the day represented to them, their hopes for the new administration and how it could set a model for progressives across the country.
Mamdani Takes Oath at Abandoned NYC Subway Station to Highlight Plan to Improve Public Transit
New York City started 2026 with a new mayor, as democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani made history when he was sworn in as the city’s first Muslim, first South Asian and first African-born leader, as well as the youngest in over a century.
The ‘America First’ President Takes On the World
American forces’ surgical capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, carried out in a daring raid shortly after 1 a.m. local time today, had been planned and rehearsed for months. Informants monitored the first couple’s movements, more than 150 aircraft provided cover starting late last night, missile strikes on military installations knocked out air defenses, and low-flying helicopters landed Delta Force soldiers in the center of Caracas. U.
How Is Trump Planning to ‘Run’ Venezuela?
David Frum is joined by The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum to react to the news of the American raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a special episode of The David Frum Show.
Transcript forthcoming.
What Role Does ‘Wrath’ Play in American Justice?
Updated at 10:01 p.m. ET on January 3, 2026
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been forcibly taken from Venezuela and are being moved to the United States to face criminal drug-trafficking charges. Regardless of the international-law implications of this military action, the Trump administration’s description of what awaits Maduro and Flores has also transgressed basic principles of American domestic criminal law, as well as the underlying philosophical justification for punishment.
The Messiness of a Post-Maduro World
The most memorable moment in the presidency of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro—at least until his kidnapping by Delta Force early this morning—came in 2017, when he accomplished the extraordinary feat of making the entire population of his country salivate with hunger simultaneously by taking a huge bite of an empanada on live television. It was as if President Donald Trump were to pause during an Oval Office address, then produce from a drawer in the Resolute Desk a fully loaded chili dog.
Maybe Russia and China Should Sit This One Out
President Donald Trump has launched not a splendid little war, but perhaps a splendid little operation in Venezuela. He has captured a dictator and removed him from power. So far, Trump seems to have executed a bad idea well: The military operation, dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve,” seems to have been flawless. The strategic wisdom, however, is deeply questionable. And the legal basis, as offered by the president and his team, is absurd. Some Americans, and some U.S. allies, are appalled.
So Was it a Good Year for US Markets or Nah?
2025 was an interesting year for US stock markets and global dealmaking.
What Was The Hottest Take This Year?
Rating the spiciness and truthiness of the hottest takes we heard in 2025.